Maybe it’s a sign from above that we should all just stop eating beef. For what it’s worth, eating beef is also associated with higher rates of several cancers including pancreatic and breast cancer, and many other of the reproductive cancers. Eating hamburger also may involve eating pink slime. So all in all, I’d say it’s been a bad year for beef, and perhaps it will go on to be a bad decade for beef. Those of us hoping to take steps to improve our health can only hope. From CNN.com: S. Korea curbs U.S. beef sales after confirmation of mad cow disease.

I upset my family sometimes by my casual attitude in the kitchen. Expiration dates are only a suggestion, I believe. Being old, I remember when there were no expiration dates and you just guessed, and my grandparents got by with an icebox. If the ice melted you just had to wing it. I took microbiology, and my philosophy is–that’s why you cook the food. When I had a baby I was fanatically vigilant– but now it’s adults and we can fend for ourselves.

That’s what I say, but I’m often the only one who will eat my cooking. Hey, more for me.

I do apply the smell test, and if doesn’t smell right I chuck it.

There’s no smell test for antibiotic residues, or for radioactivity. Some Japanese found out they had fed contaminated beef to their children before the government responded and pulled the meat from supermarkets.

But it’s all good, no danger to the public, don’t worry. Japan Times has a reassuring explanation. Does this pass the smell test?

If I eat something doubtful from my fridge, I’ll know fairly soon if it was good. The risks are short term and clear. Having radioactive Cesium in your body for a few months is a nuclear experiment on the population. The history of exposed populations– Hiroshima, Nevada, Chernobyl– is not reassuring. ‘No immediate risk’ is still the mantra. The Japanese public has a right to be concerned.